Chicago, IL – Over 50 students and community members mobilized at the University of Illinois at Chicago on Wednesday, October 7 to demand a free Palestine. The protest, organized by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at UIC, marked three years of Israel's genocide against the Palestinians and 78 years since the Nakba. After the program, students marched through campus chanting.

Speakers connected the struggle for Palestinian liberation to the violence of the U.S. to its own people and the struggle against imperialism globally.

“It has been 78 years since the Nakba, the violent and mass displacement of the Palestinian people all in the name of Zionism. Yet the rabid attack dog known as Israel was not satisfied with their brutality and are now at three years of genocide towards the Palestinian people,” said Dani Espinoza of New SDS.

Sarah Ahmad a member of SJP said, “The ruling class, who has authorized a $21.7 billion payment abroad to Israel since October 2023 and ignored all domestic calls for humanitarian relief, does not act in the interests of justice or humanity – they act in the interests of imperialism, colonialism and capitalism.” Ahmad continued, “But it is the people who have the power to transform society. It is the people, organized in solidarity, who can tear down these systems of oppression and build something new, something just, and something free.”

Ángel Naranjos, reading a statement from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, said, “It is right to rebel and the struggle continues now. We demand an immediate and total end to all U.S. aid to the apartheid state of Israel, the right of return for all Palestinian refugees, and the release of political prisoners.”

Naranjos continued “Of course, October 7 did not happen in a vacuum, but was the legitimate and righteous response to 75 years of ethnic cleansing, of Nakba, of the daily reality of occupation in the form of military violence, land and water theft, demolition of homes, of people trapped under apartheid.”

Rania Salem of the U.S Palestinian Community Network said, “They do not want us speaking on Palestine, they don't want us educating and mobilizing the masses, they do not want us unifying together under one powerful movement that works and fights together. They do not want the students organizing against their institutions in support of Palestine; they fear our movement, because they know that we are winning.”

Graeme Eble, a member of New SDS, said, “So we stand here today as students and community members to continue to show solidarity with the Palestinian people. The U of I system is still invested in genocide. We must show our administration that the students will never back down. We will not be silent in face of genocide, and we will always demand the liberation of the Palestinian people.

Valeria Muñoz Gonzalez of MeSA said, “Our state Illinois invests millions into Israeli bombs, which is investment into a genocide. Instead of investing in the genocide, our government officials in Illinois could choose to invest within our communities. That's right. We must continue to call for UIC and Illinois to divest. We must call for the liberation of Palestinian people for the liberation for all.”

Gonzalez continued, “What's happening in Palestine isn't far from our country. The same violence being unleashed on Palestinians is taught to the FBI, CIA, and ICE in trainings in which the U.S. and Israel collaborate with. That's right. These trainings teach tactics of police violence, mass surveillance, racial profiling, and suppression of descent from protesters. U.S. law enforcement has participated in exchange programs to learn from the violence the IOF uses on Palestinians to unleash in our brown and Black communities. The killings committed by ICE are connected to the IOF senseless killings of Palestine.”

The crowd chanted things like “Up, up with liberation. Down, down with occupation” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”

The protest was organized by SDS and SJP in response to UIC's continued complicity in the genocide being committed by Isreal and the United States against the Palestinian people. A few of UIC’s acts of complicity include inviting an Israeli ambassador to campus, organizing a study abroad trip to Israel, and leaking the names of SJP members to the Israeli government.

Endorsing organizations include US Palestinian Community Network, Anti-War Community Chicago, SJP, Anakbayan UIC, JSC, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Latinos Unidos, Sanctuary for all, Housing Staff United, Mexican Students De Aztlán.

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